Excerpt from the Letter from Elisha Mitchell
to John Ravenscroft, February 8, 1825: Electronic Edition. Mitchell, Elisha, 1793-1857Erika LindemannFunding from the State Library of North Carolina supported the
electronic publication of this title.Text transcribed byErika Lindemann and Lisa PrzybylinskiImages scanned byMara E. DabrishusText encoded byBrian DietzFirst Edition,
2005ca. 23KThe University Library, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, North Carolina2005

True and Candid
Compositions: The Lives and Writings of Antebellum Students in North
Carolinawritten by Lindemann, Erika Elisha Mitchell Papers (#518), Southern
Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Excerpt from the Letter from Elisha
Mitchell to John Ravenscroft, February 8, 1825 Elisha Mitchell4 pages, 4 page images1825Southern Historical Collection, University of North
Carolina at Chapel HillCall number 518 (Southern Historical
Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

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Prof. Mitchell, a Presbyterian, explains to Ravenscroft, an
Episcopal bishop, the non-denominational principles that govern his teaching of
religion.

Excerpt from the Letter from
Elisha Mitchell to
John Ravenscroft, February 8, 18251Chapel
HillFebry. 8th 1825.Dear Sir

I seize the first leisure moment I have had since the receipt of
yours to prepare a reply. That you may be the better able to judge respecting
the course it will be proper for you to pursue and also to prevent future
misapprehensions I will furnish you with
a statement of the principles by which I have been governed during the seven
years that I have been connected with the
University of N.Ca.

One considerable motive to induce me to leave
my native
state [Connecticut] and accept an appointment here was a desire to
escape from those theological disputes which were filling every village in
New
England with bitterness. At
Chapel
Hill I hoped to be so far secluded from the contentions of the day as to
be at liberty to pass my life in peace. But I should regard my life as spent to
no good purpose if occupied in giving instruction in a College built on any
other foundation than
christianity. No public teachers of religion had been
provided by the
Trustees—
Dr
Caldwell was evidently overburdened with business—I
entered into the work and preached my first sermon in the
College
Chapel.

I was educated a
Presbyterian.2 I
immediately settled in my own mind the course which it would be proper for me
to pursue and what was required of me in justice to other denominations. It
appeared to me that there were certain great doctrines which were common to
christians in the state generally—which might be
brought to bear with the happiest effect upon the minds of the students whilst
their religious creed was left to be fashioned in other particulars by those
persons whom their parents might point out as suitable guides in spiritual
things. It is an opinion which has been repeatedly expressed by me to the
gentlemen with whom I am associated that it was our duty (those of us who
preached) so to frame our discourses that the young men should go home to their
parents better
Episcopalians—better
Presbyterians—better
Baptists—better
Methodists than they were when they came. To this end my
labours have been directed and I believe—not without success. Our
graduates have been (at least in many places) remarkable beyond other young men
of their age for their punctual and decent attendance on divine worship and
their respect for religion. I have never known an
instance where a young man has forsaken thecreed of his Fathers during his residence here.

My mathematical recitations have no bearing upon the subject of
religion It is found expedient that the young men should have a lesson on
sunday—if for no other purpose at least to keep them from profaning the
day by unholy diversions. In selecting more than six years ago a book to be
recited in the Junior class I had a particular reference to the fact that this
a state institution. The book made choice of was
Paley'sNat. Theology.3
Pious students have sometimes objected to studying it on sunday on the ground
that it was not sufficiently devotional. My reply has been—that a book
more devotional must be framed according to the dogmas of some religious sect
and that the introduction of anything sectarian was as far as possible to be
avoided. The object of the one in question was—to establish the existence
of
God and point
out the evidences of wisdom exhibited in his works—and that no one could
read it without profit. These views have been more than once exhibited
byto
the students in the recitation room with an intention—at least—that it would be proper
for them to learn at home what viewsopinions it would be expedient for them to
adopt in relation to those questions about which
christians are at variance.

As an evidence that I have not been more zealous for my own creed
than became a man who had any at all I may mention that
Mr Hooper4 will
tell you that when he thought of taking orders in the
Episcopal church he had my hearty concurrence and that
when he leftsusit was at my more than once repeated
request that he wrote to
Mr
Eastburn—then about to receive ordination in the
Diocese of N. York—requesting him to become a
candidate for the vacant professorship.
Mr Eastburn had other views but had he
come he would have received a hearty welcome I might add more on this topic but
will only request you to believe on the word of a man who hopes for
heaven—that I have never uttered a sentence to a
student either in the pulpit or out of [it] with an intention to make him a
Presbyterian.

The inference which I wish you to draw from the above statements is
that a man who has been thus just and liberal is not—unless the reasons
are very pressing—to be exhibited to the public in the character
of religious partizun which does not
belong to him—of a religious partizun.

The considerations which independantly of a regard to justice have
led to the adoption of the above line of conduct were—A desire to put it
into the power of any Father to commit his son to my care in the full
confidence that the principles of the parent would be respected—that no
obstacle might be interposed to prevent my getting the affections of the youth
and heading him along successfully in his studies; by the idea thatI was the enemy of his faith—and lastly that all
hearts might be united in support of an institution which with all its
imperfections is of inestimable value to the State.—Unless I deceive
myself it is a regard for the institution chiefly and especially rather than
personal considerations which make me wish to retire from this contest. [. . .]5

I remain with Sentiments of RespectYour Obdt.
Servt.E.
MitchellTo
Right Rev. John S. Ravenscroft.

1. Matthias Murray Marshall Papers, SHC. The letter is addressed
"To the/
Right Revd John Ravenscroft/
Raleigh"; the postage endorsement reads "Chapl
Hill 6." Below the address at the edge of the paper, a second hand
has written "Professor Mitchell/8th Febry 1825/
ChapelHill."

From time to time
North
Carolinians accused the faculty of being too
Presbyterian. In 1824 and early 1825
PresbyterianElisha
Mitchell found himself embroiled in a public controversy with
John Stark Ravenscroft (1772-1830), the first bishop of
the
Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. In correspondence
with
Ravenscroft dated May 1824,
Mitchell had defended the
University against the charge that it was
"building up
Presbyterianism," but evidently
Ravenscroft was unsatisfied. On December 24, 1824, the
Raleigh Register published a
piece that
Mitchell wrote over the signature "Clericus," in which he argued that
Scripture was the only source of religious truth and
that "the use of tradition as an aid to religious interpretation"
should be rejected (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography 4:282). From late January to late March 1825,
Mitchell and
Ravenscroft exchanged no fewer than eighteen letters
continuing the controversy.
Mitchell apologized for publicly airing a private quarrel;
Ravenscroft demanded a public apology, threatening to
reveal
Mitchell's identity as "Clericus" and thereby embarrassing the
University. Though only an excerpt from
Mitchell's February 8, 1825, letter appears here, readers
wishing to consult the other letters bearing on the
Mitchell-
Ravenscroft controversy will find them in the Matthias
Murray Marshall Papers, SHC.

2. A graduate of
Yale in 1813,
Mitchell took a brief theological course before receiving
his license to preach from the
Congregationalist Western Association of
New
Haven County, CT, in 1817. In 1821
Mitchell was ordained by the
Presbytery of Orange in
Hillsborough, NC (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography 4:282).

3.
William
Paley,
Natural Theology; or,
Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity (London: R.
Faulder, 1802).

4.
William Hooper (1792-1876), professor of ancient languages
from 1817 to 1822, became an
Episcopal deacon in 1820. In 1822 he left his faculty
position to become pastor of
St. Johns Church in
Fayetteville, NC. His doubts about the church's teaching on
baptism, confirmation, and Holy Orders led him to resign his congregation in
1824. The following year, he returned to the
University as professor of rhetoric and logic. In
1831
Hooper was baptized a member of
Mt. Carmel
Baptist Church.

5. In the rest of letter,
Mitchell defends himself from
Ravenscroft's charge that the "Clericus" piece can be used by others "as an
instrument with which to assail the
Episcopal church."Mitchell reasserts his argument: "The position of
Clericus is merely that 'True Religion Can be found by the
Bible
Alone.'" By late March 1825,
Mitchell and
Ravenscroft had settled on printing, each at their own
expense, a reply to the other's arguments.